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Wednesday, 6 February 2013

El Shaddai is easily the best platformer I have played since the likes
of Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Master System, which is a game I honestly
never thought would be equalled in the genre, let alone surpassed. I have of
course enjoyed many platform games over the years since, but while many are and
were brilliant, none of them have come close to matching Sonics first Master
System outing. Until that is when I finally played El Shaddai, a platformer
that didn’t equal it, but surpassed and smashed it. Yet I have found myself
staring at the box for the best part of ten minutes before starting work on
this review, just contemplating on how best to go about reviewing this game. I
have never felt daunted at the thought of reviewing any game, or felt so lost
on how to approach one, but I find myself in just such a position with this
amazing title. Not because its bad, or because I don’t understand it, but
because it has overwhelmed my expectations of it by breaking free from shackles
of decades old tradition, undermining my tired notion of what a platformer
should adhere to be, while leaving me unable to wrap my head around various
parts of it and quantify the game into a neat tidy label at its spectacular
conclusion.

El Shaddai is a game inspired by religion, taking much of its
inspiration and story from the Old Testament and The Book of Enoch in
particular. It is inspired by all the great stories, myths, places and people
found within, and you will see and hear this religious Judo Christian influence
throughout the game as it is the makeup and binding force that makes the game
what it is. Apart from its Jewish and Christian influence, you will also come
across others in the mix as well, Buddhism and Hinduism for example, though not
nearly as strong they are clearly there, in some chapters they are apparent in
the visuals, in others the music, but they are woven in there and are rather
more subtle. Don’t think of this game as one that wears its religious influence
on its collar and tries to force some belief upon you as that’s not what this
game is about. Think more of ancient history and some of the old myths and
stories, as the developers take that Old Testament good story telling aesthetic
and feel and make a game influenced from it, and an amazing job they have done
to, as El Shaddai feels like an ancient story about God, Angels and Man, one
that doesn’t feel at all out of place.

The way in which the story is told and presented also does it in such a
subtle way that follows the ancient astronauts theory that God and Angels are,
or were, extra-terrestrials, aliens if you will, who came to Earth, created mankind,
had a plan for their creations and influenced their development throughout
history. Furthermore heaven and hell are different areas where they preside and
Enoch’s (Enoch is the main protagonist in the game) weapons from God as well as
other things are nothing more than alien technology that ancient man interprets
as god-like instruments. This isn’t something that is openly suggested or put
to the player in any way, its just a subtle thing that’s there that is open to
interpretation by the player. Whether this was intentional by the developer or
whether I’m just projecting my beliefs upon the game and its story I'm not
entirely sure. But what’s cleaver is that the game in itself can be left to
this kind of interpretation by the player, (perhaps because of the religious
theme and story, and religion itself being open to many ways of interpretation itself,)
and what one may see within it may be different to what someone else will interpret
from it. Again whether this aspect of the game and its story was an intentional
element or not is anyone’s guess, but it’s certainly a unique and interesting
side to the game I haven’t come across before.

The story goes that God has a purpose for Man, one that was put into
place when he created mankind and placed them upon the Earth. God appointed his
loyal angels, the Grigori to watch over mankind from Heaven, who over time had
become besotted and captivated by the lives of man. They eventually descended
from the Heavens and lived amongst man, influencing them and procreating with
those they once watched over. The Fallen Angels corrupted man with sin, causing
them to deviating from the plan God had laid out for them, creating a false
path for man to follow. Angered by the Fallen Angels betrayal of God, the
Council of Elders in Heaven decided that the only way forward was to wipe the
Earth clean of man corrupted by evil and sin by creating a great flood upon the
Earth. One man, a scribe named Enoch brought to Heaven by God, pleaded before
the Council of Elders against flooding the Earth. They agreed to spare mankind
on the condition that Enoch returned to Earth, find the Fallen Angels and bring
them back to Heaven to face Gods judgment. So Enoch returned to Earth on his
quest, guided by the Archangel Lucifel, he must find the Fallen Angels and cleanse
man of their sin.

El Shaddai is a 2D/3D hack-n-slash platformer, it seamlessly blends both
2D and 3D platforming elements together to such a degree the game has nailed
the formula with its first go. In this game the transition between the two
different perspectives has quite literally been worked to a fine art. One
minute you will be in the 3D perspective, often with the viewpoint from an
interesting angle, running, jumping and fighting enemies, then before you even realise
it’s happened the perspective has stealthily transitioned into its 2D side on
form. Its not always as subtle as this, there are of course parts that are all
in one perspective or the other, but when the game transitions so seamlessly,
it makes you wonder why it hasn’t become the norm in the genre already as it
feels so naturally done.

Each level is a varied mix of elements always changing as the game
progresses, keeping things fresh and making sure the player can always expect
the unexpected as far as level design goes. Some of the 2D parts are designed
in such a way that they are superbly geared for speed runs, where a player is
supposed to become so finely tuned into the level that they smoothly glide
Enoch through it with ease. Other 2D parts are slower and perhaps a little more
traditional in their makeup, these platforming parts are about being more
careful and are certainly slower paced, having you fight enemies, avoid many of
the pitfalls, lurking dangers and timing those all important jumps. The 3D
parts can follow the same route, with levels designed for speed flow, with
others about meticulous precision platforming and danger avoidance.

The 3D parts however are where most of the games hack-n-slash fighting
will occur, but rather than force the player to fight for every step en route,
down narrow corridors and from one large area to the next, the fighting will
take place in rounded type sections effortlessly blended into parts of the
levels. You will quickly learn to identify these little areas dotted about each
level, and upon entering them they become like small arenas, fenced off until
you have defeated all of the spawning enemies or the end of level boss. Some
players might not take to the way in which the developers have choose to
implement the fighting in such a way like this, and I must admit it sounds more
detached than it actually is, more so down to my inability to quite put this
game into words than anything else. But believe me when I say that this really
does work more in its practical implementation than it sounds, as El Shaddai is
a game where all its sum parts seem to blend and flow together, fitting
perfectly, and this particular area is no exception. You do of course face some
enemies en route through the levels, but these are nothing more than fodder, they
are there specifically to pose as an obstacle, to knock Enoch off his footing
and into danger, nothing more nothing less, the real enemies lie in wait in the
arena type areas.

Combat is pretty simple, just as you would want it to be, with two
buttons for two different types of attacks which when held down will make Enoch
dispense more powerful variant attacks. Special attacks can be implemented by
pressing RB and X, and later in the story a special overboost attack bestowed
upon Enoch by the Archangel Uriel can be used when your boost level is full and
by tapping LB and RB. Enemies can also be whipped up and attacked in the air
and dealt multiple hits to wear them down, as well as being attacked on the
ground by a hovering Enoch, allowing him to go on the offensive yet avoid any
ground based attacks. There are no special powers as such in this game bar the
overboost, and there are no over flirtatious and exuberant combo’s to endlessly
string together that you find in other such games like Bayonetta and Devil May
Cry, nor can you collect, assign, build or equip different powers and power-ups.
As far as the hack-n-slash fighting element is concerned, El Shaddai takes
things back to its core roots, keeping things simple, uncomplicated and
minimalistic. But this does not suck the fun from the games veins, far from it
in fact; the game is just as fun and challenging as any combo power-up driven
game in this genre. Stripping the excess from this area has made the fighting
in the game feel fresh as much as it is in keeping with the style and flow of
the game, while also ensuring the fun and challenge remain intact.

There is a blocking system in El Shaddai, but it’s tricky to implement
and will take some time to master and pull off. Blocking is split into a two
tear system, holding RB will block some attacks but not all depending on the
enemy and how they attack you, and you will still take damage here, but not as
much. Tapping RB just before an enemy strikes Enoch will repel their attack and
leave your foe off guard and open to attack so timing is everything. The
blocking system in this game is partly like the one implemented in the melee
survival horror game Condemned released by Sega back in 2005. Condemned, (while
in the first person perspective,) also relied on perfect timing to block enemy attacks
that when successful would repel enemies and leave them off-guard. The only
difference between the two games being that Condemned didn’t have a two tear
blocking system like El Shaddai.

As well as being able to throw punches and kicks when finding himself
without a weapon on rare occasions, Enoch has access to three different weapons
through most of the game, though he will start off with one and the other two
will become available when the game progresses. The Arch, Gale and Veil are the
only weapons in the game and the only ones Enoch can use, each one very
different to the other, with each better suited to different situations and
enemies than the other, and each assigned its own unique special attacks. The
Arch is like a Klingon Bat’leth, yet sounds exactly like a Lightsaber and is
swung about like its essentially a sword, it’s the go-to weapon of the game
that I found myself using the most as it also has an air glide ability when
Enoch jumps, which come in pretty handy for all the platforming elements of the
game. The Gale is a long range weapon akin to the bow and arrow, circular in
nature like Xena: Warrior Princesses Chakram weapon, but with tiny metallic
bolts that circle Enoch which he is able to control and fire in any direction.
Finally the Veil, a weapon that is made up of two shields, one on either hand
that are both used to pound enemies into submission. This weapon is the most
powerful of all three, allowing Enoch to deal the most damage, but its trade-off
is that it’s slow and cumbersome, leaving Enoch more open and susceptible to
being attacked.

There are a variety of different enemies in the game, and as you
progress further you will start to encounter more powerful and challenging
enemy variants, but the three core types are ones that use Gods three weapons.
You won’t encounter them all from the beginning of the game; they will appear
in battles once you have reached a point where another of Gods weapons becomes
available to Enoch as the Arch is the only one available to him at the start of
the game. They also become more powerful and challenging throughout the course
of the game, so an Arch wielding enemy of Sin might pose a challenge and become
easily conquered at the start of the game when you are getting to grips with
things, but a faster, more powerful and nimble Arch wielding enemy will take
its place in another chapter, and the same can be said of the other enemies.

The highlights of the fighting are the many different boss encounters
you will face in the game, all of which are varied, different and always
surprising. At first you will never know whether you are in a boss fight for
real or not, or at times whether you’re facing a mid-chapter boss or end of
chapter boss as they can pop up and challenge Enoch at random. These seemingly
random challenges will make short work of Enoch before transporting him back
into a level, and serve as an element to keep you always second guessing which
encounter will be the actual proper fight. As always in these kind of games,
you can expect variety in the boss designs, the weird and wonderful, with
multiple stages of attacks and attack patterns to learn and overcome, with each
harder and more difficult than the last. My favourite boss encounter has to be
Armaros, as it was not like any boss fight I have encountered before, with the
seamless transition between cut-scene and gameplay, Armaros dancing in the
foreground up against the TV screen as though he was dancing for a camera, and
having Enoch fight dancing enemies in the background. To say this boss
encounter was different and surreal is an understatement, and although Armaros
might not have been the most spectacular and all conquering boss fight in El
Shaddai, or in gaming history for that matter, it was surly the most memorable
and stylish to ever be conceived.

With all that said and done there are but only a few things about El
Shaddai that I found to be amiss, nothing major or significantly game changing,
just a few very small things, as the game is pretty much as polished as you
could hope for in a game on todays current systems. You can either play the
game with Japanese voice acting with English subtitles (much better and
preferable to dub in my opinion,) or English voice acting and turn subtitles
off, or set them to Japanese. The problem with the English voice acting doesn’t
rest with the acting itself, as the voice work in the game is superbly done,
but lies with the lip-sync, as is common with dub, it can be out of sync and
noticeable. This shouldn’t be a problem in games really as the lips for in game
characters and cut-scenes can easily be synced to the voice, but in El Shaddai
it hasn’t been done, at least not in a way it should be done with a game, but
more like English dub you will find in movies. It’s not all that bad, but it is
noticeable in the cut-scenes, you wont notice it in the game though as the
camera is to far away from the characters.

The only other complaint is that when you get caught in an enemy attack,
or stringed attack, it’s almost if nigh on impossible to break free. Once enemies
get hold of Enoch and whip him up into their attack patterns, then he is
essentially locked in for the duration until it’s over, so no matter how you
try and break free, you just have to accept the punishment and wait until it’s
over. More than anything else this is just frustrating; it’s not a bad
mechanic, its just punishment for not successfully blocking in the first place
or dodging an enemy move.

The game didn’t leave me furrow browed, more like slack jawed, I appreciated
every minute of it, yet was left with my head wrapped within its meandering
story and gameplay. You don’t play El Shaddai, as it’s not a game to be played;
you experience it, as it’s a rare gaming experience that doesn’t come around too
often. El Shaddai is a game to be seized upon if given the chance to play it, as
it’s not often a game ebbs and flows so serenely, yet will always keep you
second guessing every twist and turn of your journey through it. El Shaddai
extends its hand to you, offering a journey and an experience, where story and
gameplay are inseparable and intertwined, one indistinguishable from one
another. If you have reached that point where you truly crave a unique gaming
experience set within this familiar of all genres, which is not constrained by
its formulaic tradition and rules, then you may want to extend your hand to.

I’m hoping that if anything I have at least peaked your interest in El
Shaddai, enough to make you want to give it a go, as I could have wrote at
length about the graphics, but I think the screenshots will speak for
themselves, so let’s just say the visuals are quite breathtakingly beautiful. I
have tried my best to put into words as much as I could and give you, the
reader, a simple understanding of what to expect from the basic makeup of this
great game, but El Shaddai can’t be fully explained. Its like that one thing
that’s always on the tip of your brain, but you can never fully grasp and pin
down into words; it’s always just out of reach, which is why it can only be
fully understood by experiencing it for yourself.